Working with Shapes

Emily has been wanting to make a boat. I’m not sure where this idea came from but with Emily you never know. She is pretty random. I decided to make in into a mini lessons on shapes and gluing (I’ve learned how important gluing lessons are thanks to my new 3 year old class.)

I cut out some shapes from different colored construction paper. I cut a circle, rectangle, triangle, and half circle. Then I told Emily to put the shapes on a white piece of paper as I called them out. So I would say, “Emily, where is the triangle?” and she would place it anywhere on the white paper. Once she “found” all the shapes I asked her to put them where she wanted them on her paper to make a picture. She had no idea that is was supposed to be a boat but I wanted to see what she would make. She ended up telling me she made a person with a hat on. Then I told her we were going to make a boat. I told her where the half circle should go and she was able to figure out the rest.

This is a fun activity that can be done many different ways with lots of different shapes. You can let your child be creative and put the shapes anywhere to make their own pictures. When Ashlyn finished making the boat she asked for crayons and stickers to finish her picture. Another idea would be to make something and then have them try to copy it using the same shapes. I love activities that can be repeated and still be just as fun!